Step by Step

They stripped him and put a scarlet robe on him, and after twisting some thorns into a crown, they put it on his head. They put a reed in his right hand and knelt before him and mocked him, saying, ‘Hail, King of the Jews!’
Matthew 27:28-29

Go to Dark Gethsemane LBW 109

 1    Go to dark Gethsemane, all who feel the tempter’s pow’r;
     your Redeemer’s conflict see. Watch with him one bitter hour;
      turn not from his griefs away; learn from Jesus Christ to pray.

2    Follow to the judgment hall, view the Lord of life arraigned;
      oh, the wormwood and the gall! Oh, the pangs his soul sustained!
      Shun not suff’ring, shame, or loss; learn from him to bear the cross.

3    Calv’ry’s mournful mountain climb; there, adoring at his feet,
      mark that miracle of time, God’s own sacrifice complete.
      ”It is finished!” hear him cry; learn from Jesus Christ to die.

4    Early hasten to the tomb where they laid his breathless clay;
      all is solitude and gloom. Who has taken him away?
      Christ is ris’n! He meets our eyes. Savior, teach us so to rise.

Text: James Montgomery, 1771-1854

Step by step, James Montgomery walks us through the passion of Christ.  We go with Jesus to Gethsemane, where troubled thoughts of death await.  As his friends drift off to sleep, he fights the temptation to take a pass.  It was a painful time, and Montgomery pulls no punches.   Then comes the trial, that shabby excuse for justice where Jesus is railroaded and accused, where the beatings and badgering and cross bearing ensue.  And finally, the tomb, where his disciples discover in their confusion and joy that that he is no longer there; but risen from the dead!

Step by step, we learn that the journey Jesus makes in a week, is not unlike the journey we make in a life.  From birth to betrayals to death, we learn from Him how to endure temptation and humiliation, to face suffering and death with patience and hope.  And finally, how through Christ, we learn that even in death, we too shall rise!

 Prayer:  Lord Jesus, your life, death and resurrection are the power that enables us to walk, step by step, this journey.  Help us, teach us; show us the way, the truth and the life! Amen.